Convocation 2013
InfoLink - Mon Jun 03, 2013
And so here comes the beginning of the end… It’s time to graduate!
As an Infolink staff we are students too and every year a new batch of us graduate and move onto, what I like to call “real life” because clearly University has sheltered us from it all along even though some of us got married, bought houses, work real important jobs in the summer, or have even planned for the arrival of our first born! The feeling of celebrating the conclusion of our degrees is exhilarating as it is terrifying.
So it must mean that some of you are feeling the same! We’ve decided to compose a few thoughts for you about how “What’s next?” can both take a toll and create excitement on the life of a student who is ready to become an alumnus/alumna!
“Graduating this year is a bit surreal. Over the past 8 years campus has become both my home and a large part of my life. I live here. I work here. All of my friends are here. (Oh and I suppose I go to school here too). The thought of leaving all of that behind finally after so long is both scary as well as exciting. As much fun as I have had, I really am ready to enter the next phase of my life. It is time to leave the ivory tower and enter the real world of 9-5's and "assignments" with real world consequences. While I will be sad to leave campus, given how important it has become to me, I know that I don't have to leave it all behind. I will have the many friends I made and the memories to truly keep me a part of the campus.”
“I like to think about leaving the University as little as I can. Mostly so I can pretend its not going to happen!”
“What’s next for me is up in the air. I am somewhere in the middle of being excited and being terrified. On the one hand, I’m not going to have to pay tuition again! On the other hand, I have no idea where my degree is going to take me. I don’t know what I’ll be doing, or where I’ll be living and that’s really scary!”
“What the heck do I do now?”
“Graduating is a pretty harrowing thought. Admittedly, I look back on my 4 years here and question the use of some of the courses I have done. I have come to realize that everything important I have learned was not an expected outcome on a syllabus; it was everything I've been exposed to outside of those core objectives that will carry me beyond my time here. The memorization of key pathways and disease cycles and benign factoids, while important for a grade, are not entirely applicable to real world situations (unless you pursue those kinds of things in greater detail in your line of work). For me, it was the way in which I achieved all these expectations, both inside a classroom and out in volunteer and work experiences on campus, that will keep me safe beyond the walls of this university. Cooperative and interdisciplinary group work. Investigative research. Professionalism and conscientious work habits. Networking. These were never expectations on a syllabus, but because of my time spent both in a class and out of it, I feel like I'll do okay. Harrowed, but okay.”
“I am scared, but so excited at the same time! After all the years of time spent in classes learning theories, I can finally have the opportunity to things into practice! I’ve worked hard for my degree, and I’m excited to finally make it useful!”
“What’s next to me means that I am probably going to throw my hands in the air, fall to the ground in agony and cry a lot in the next three months. Not only am I completely finished all my course work as of February 4th, but I am already trying to figure out how I’m going to get a job after I’m finished, go on practicum, and feed myself all over the next three months! Talk about stressed out! But if I ignore all that and truly think about what’s next for me, it’s actually incredibly exciting as currently ANYTHING is next for me. The possibilities seem endless! As I am about to put my big girl pants on, drive all over the province for interviews, be a professional 100% of the time (which I mean aren’t we all totally professional throughout all of university anyway?) and to actually be considered a colleague and seen on new levels that university students sometimes cannot be seen on by the “adults” of the world, that is truly an amazing idea to focus on! The best answer I have for myself (and for you to consider too) is I have no clue what’s next, and that is scary, but isn’t it exciting to think about all the possibilities?”
Those are just a few samplings of the feelings the graduating class of 2013 has. The important thing to remember is that you are not alone in your feeling, whatever it may be. Graduation is both a scary and exciting time for everyone, but it is just another new and fantastic page in this epic called life. We made it through the transition to high school, getting to university, and now another giant leap into the working world (or pursuing grad studies, or travel, or wherever life takes you!) will start another chapter of our life.
If you are feeling like you are not sure what is or could be next for you, then there are amazing resources on campus to take advantage of before you go! The lovely people at CAPS are ready to help you with whatever you need career wise, and have a set of listening ears too for your job woes.
And you can always visit us here at Infolink, we have caring and understanding about to be graduating students working here too, we can help you find the right place to find transcripts, help you look up the path to a new program, or just find information on places you can visit or roads you can take to make that transition from the comfort of the U of A out into the working world as easy as possible!
So congratulations! And please feel free to let us know how you are feeling about graduation by tweeting the #UAlberta13 hashtag at @InfoLinkUofA.
